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Board of Trustees: Student Wellness, Coronavirus and Spring Break

Alumni Tower | Photo by Soham Parikh | The Wright State Guardian

On Dec. 10, the Wright State University (WSU) Board of Trustees met virtually for the final time this semester, discussing Student Advocacy and Wellness, coronavirus testing and tentative spring semester plans.  

Student wellness 

The Student Advocacy and Wellness Center relocated to 051 Student Union this semester, where resources such as the food pantry and case management are provided.  

“This semester, so far, we’ve had 354 cases. Last year for the entire 12 months, we had 562 management cases,” said Associate Director of Student Advocacy Destiny Biesemeyer.  

Biesemeyer went on to address the success of Student Advocacy and Wellness’ donation projects and the services they provide before going into how the office is able to sustain itself financially.  

“Since 2016, we’ve brought in over $900,000 in grants to the university. Sustained dialogue is something that we’re hoping to get off the ground here shortly as well. This will help contribute to our inclusive excellence mission, and bring in a lot of peers to create this space of inquisitive, respectful dialogue,” said Biesemeyer.  

Coronavirus testing  

In November, WSU began to roll out a pilot program to test asymptomatic students in order to comply with state health official’s request for colleges to perform random testing in the spring semester. The program consisted of randomly testing over 300 students considered “at-risk” on campus.  

“We only had about a 15% no show rate…” said WSU Provost Dr. Douglas Leaman. “So this was very encouraging, and we don’t have unexpected or unidentified hotspots within our population at this point.” 

The plan for moving forward with asymptomatic testing next semester is still in the works. 

Spring semester and beyond 

Leaman also addressed various concerns regarding the plans for the spring semester during the public session.  

“All commencement ceremonies will be virtual now, in terms of the spring academic calendar, and many other schools are either altering the semester start date or are opting to cancel their spring break as a way to try and minimize COVID spread on campus. We currently have no plans to do either,” said Leaman. 

Leaman went on to address how spring break is vital for WSU students’ mental health before addressing the tentative plans for the summer semester.  

“So looking forward to summer again, summer schedules have already been planned and we asked the schedulers to carry forward the delivery similar to what we’ve done this fall and what plan to spring,” said Leaman.  

Currently, the plan is to keep the majority of courses online with a selection being offered hybrid or face-to-face when possible.  

The next public session for the Board of Trustees is scheduled to take place virtually on Feb. 19 at 9:00 a.m. 


Kaitlyn Chrosniak

News Reporter

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